Ignorance is Bliss
by Laveycee
Summary: A day in the life of Clarisse McClellan. She finds out something that she probably shouldn't have. Oops. Slight x-over with Supernatural (an all-human AU). T for a mention of violence.


**This time the prompt was "An ordinary day in the life of either Mrs. Montag or Clarisse McClellan". I chose Clarisse. Now, this is a Supernatural crossover in that some people aren't who they seem to be. Clarisse still lives with her mother and uncle, both of whom are characters from SPN (except that her mother is a genderbent version...). Also, I... took some liberties with the Winchesters. So, it's a crossover in that the characters are still (mostly) in character, and an all-human AU. Kinda. Hopefully that made sense to someone. I think I just managed to confuse myself.**

**Disclaimer: _Fahrenheit 451_ belongs to Ray Bradbury (rest his soul), and Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke (as far as I know. He's the creator, anyway).**

* * *

Morning

_7 a.m. _I wake up slowly. _ Not a school day,_ I decide. _ It's not worth going to-and they won't miss me._

After a moment, I get up-my mother and uncle should be getting ready for breakfast.

Down the stairs, left, down the hallway, second door on the right. The kitchen.

"Good morning, Clarisse." My mother greets me calmly, as she always does-a sharp contrast to my... _relaxed_ attitude-like my Uncle Gabriel. "Not going to school today?" she asks mildly.

"Morning, Mom. It's not like I'll learn anything," I say, slightly defensive.

"Kiddo, it doesn't look good to the government if you're skipping all the time," Uncle Gabriel says as he enters the kitchen from outside.

"Or 'hello', as people used to say," Mom mock-scolds.

Apart, Mom and Uncle Gabriel don't look very much like siblings. But standing side by side-there's an aura about them, and their postures are very much alike. No major physical resemblance stands out-although they're both blondes.

Uncle Gabriel sighs dramatically. "Hello, Lucy," he drawls. "Mornin', Clarisse!" Uncle Gabriel sings, grabbing me into another one of his bear-hugs.

I know from experience that he won't let go until he receives a "good morning" in return, so it's always been better to say it quickly. "Goodmorningunclegabrielcanyouletgonow," I say in one breath.

"Sorry, kiddo-what was that?"

"Uncle Gabriel!" I squeak. _You're crushing my lungs!_

"Gabriel," Mom says in a warning tone. He lets go rather quickly after that.

Mom's a few years older than Uncle Gabriel, and she always said that other than _her _older brothers-Michael and Raphael-she had been the one in charge growing up. But they've both always said that they both had a falling out with the rest of the family-first Mom, then Uncle Gabriel-and that there's been no contact since. I've always wondered about the rest of the family, and since today Mom and Uncle Gabriel both have work all day, and I'm skipping...

"Hey, Mom," I say, doing my best to look innocent. "Can I go by the library today?"

The "library" isn't really a library anymore-no books. The only reason it was still referred to as a library was because it was still a major source of information. There were multiple media rooms with all four walls taken up by screens, and the rest of the space was row after row of state-of-the-art computers. Not a lot of people went there anymore, because most people had screens and computers at their homes. The official reason for it being open was because it provided jobs for people. The real reason-or, rather, the reason whispered about on the streets-was because the government wanted to be able to find the hackers. The hackers had been around for decades, apparently, but now they had a different self-imposed job: To get what they called the "Truth" (capital T; makes it official, so the story goes) out to the general public. They had been thorns in the government's collective sides for a while, and it was suspected that the hackers operated out of libraries to make it harder for them to be found.

Anyway, I know that the best way to find out anything about my family is to use the library.

"Sure, Clarisse," Mom says. I know what she's thinking: _Not for a school project, those have been gone for years, so what...?_

"There's a holo-vid I've been wanting to see, and I can't watch it here."

It's true, or close to being true-if there had been a holo-vid I wanted to watch, we didn't have any screens or computers at home. At least, no working computers.

"Kiddo! Pancakes?" Uncle Gabriel says suddenly.

It's odd-I didn't notice Uncle Gabriel making anything, or making any sort of noise. He had been silent, which was incredibly weird for Uncle Gabriel. He was the one person who had to be moving, had to be doing something-something that was preferably noisy.

"Please," I say, dismissing the matter from my mind.

We sit and eat, Mom and Uncle Gabriel quickly so they could leave for their respective jobs more quickly, and myself more sedately.

It's eight a.m. on the dot when I finish cleaning up. If I can get dressed and ready by eight fifteen, I can catch the subway that goes downtown. _There's another one slightly later,_ a tiny voice reminds me. I squash it-I want to be on time for this subway. I _will _be on time.

I am on time for the subway. I get on, doing my best to tune out the annoying repetition of "Denham's Dentifrice". I vaguely wonder what it is, before deciding that whatever it is, it's not worth worrying about.

Afternoon

On the subway again at three p.m. I don't notice anything. The world could be coming to an end, and I wouldn't have noticed.

My mother and Uncle Gabriel... What I found out-the government couldn't have known, or they would have been killed a long time ago. Their existence is impossible, and yet-I see them every day. I live with them. They told me stories from books when I was little, stopping when I learned to talk, to share details of my life with others-then telling me the stories again when I grew up a little and was told that I shouldn't share the stories with my classmates or my teachers.

Government officials would be coming soon, I knew it-I must have tipped them off with my library research. I'm technologically impaired, I don't know how to hide my activity from anyone. It's an important skill, and I should have learned. _I have no one but myself to blame. I have condemned my mother and my uncle to death. My only family, and myself._

The rest of the family-Michael and Raphael, my grandfather and grandmother... even my father and his brother-are all dead. They tried to stop what the government was doing, and they paid the price. Nobody can stand up to a government and successfully revolt. It wasn't even a fair fight that they died in, really-a massacre is the name for it. And my mother and Uncle Gabriel-they barely escaped, my mother just beginning to show with me when they ran. Halfway across the country-from somewhere formerly known as Kansas ("Classified", the file said) to New York City, somewhere bursting with people, and anonymity.

I wish that I could tell this to Mr. Montag-he may seem scary, but really he was very nice... Even if he was a fireman. But no. I'm certain that when I arrive home-when my mother and Uncle Gabriel arrive home, at the latest-government officials will be waiting to finish the job began nearly seventeen years ago.

_No loose ends, _I think to myself. And I get off the subway.

* * *

**Thoughts? Also, should I continue this? Well... not this exact version, but a slightly different, everything-in-Supernatural-happened-and-they-rebelled-against-the-government type thing?**


End file.
